Perhaps unfairly, Marie Jones remains more noted for commercial rather than critical success. The Blind Fiddler – an exciting fusion of melodrama, traditional music, and great storytelling – looks likely to be as successful ...

Almost every European country that gained independence after the First World War had one thing in common: with only one exception, they all tried to stimulate the growth of a national literature by commissioning translations ...

Fintan Walsh’s new anthology begins with a line that seems in danger of subverting the rest of the book. “There is strength
in numbers, so they say,” writes Frank McGuinness in his foreword – before adding “I’ve never ...

When Martin McDonagh’s Leenane plays first appeared in Ireland, they seemed exciting for many reasons: their
delinquent humour, their rootedness in (but distance from) the Irish dramatic tradition, their wilfully ...

One of the clichés of Irish theatre historiography is that drama in this country is excessively verbal – that our dramatists
write for the voice, but not for the body. But if you actually go to the theatre here, it soon ...

As we enter the Gaiety, we discover that Once has already begun: the cast are gathered in what looks like an ordinary pub
where a session is underway. They play music for about twenty minutes while members of the audience ...

During the last decade, Owen Roe has emerged as one of Ireland’s very best actors – yet, until now, he’s rarely filled a
major leading role. His performance as the Irishman in Ben Barnes’s 2001 Gigli Concert was astonishing ...

The ramifications of the controversy over Sebastian Barry’s latest play echo well beyond the "Hinterland", argues Patrick Lonergan.
What, exactly, is so bad about Hinterland? Using aspects of the career of Charles ...